Chapter 820

Myriad star fireflies costs at least sixteen dao marks, with no upper limit. More range or power costs more, which is precisely why the move is extremely strong: it turns any entering Gu Immortal’s thoughts into star thoughts feeding the attack. This is why Dong Fang Chang Fan relied on schemes and used the move only as a last resort: dao marks cannot be recovered, and are hard to obtain. ^{ch. 820}

Fang Yuan judges myriad star fireflies on par with his myriad self, though without wisdom path dao marks he may never use it. It also needs three wisdom path Immortal Gu, none of which Fang Yuan holds. Of the three he wants star thought Immortal Gu most. ^{ch. 820}

The inheritance holds more than ten Immortal Gu recipes, including star thought Immortal Gu’s. One bead of green grape immortal essence produces a hundred thousand star thoughts, though Fang Yuan would gain fewer, since his dao marks are strength path, raising giant hand’s power by only twenty percent, which is very low. ^{ch. 820}

Star thought Immortal Gu would ease his deductions, and his wealth could sustain it. But refining the Immortal Gu is unaffordable: Immortal Gu are fragments of the Great Dao demanding extreme resources, and low success rates mean many sets of materials must be prepared. Even Dong Fang Chang Fan, Northern Plains’ number one wisdom path Gu Immortal, held only eight Immortal Gu at his peak, two of them not wisdom path, having refined fewer than half the inheritance’s Immortal Gu recipes. ^{ch. 820}

Fang Yuan values an immortal killer move called star fog concealment, which wraps a Gu Immortal in foggy starlight to hide their appearance. Its true effect runs deeper: it conceals them from the secrets of heaven, so a deducer gets back only unclear answers. He took this inheritance to defend against other wisdom path Gu Immortals and greatly delay his exposure as the culprit. But star fog concealment needs two wisdom path Immortal Gu as its core. ^{ch. 820}

Fang Yuan can for now use only the inheritance’s teaching on enemy wills, since he holds the will of Mo Yao. Mo Yao had incredible refinement path attainment, was an inkman and Bo Qing’s lover. What moves Fang Yuan most are her clues to the Red Lotus Demon Venerable inheritance, since the vital Gu of his first aperture, Spring Autumn Cicada, was once Red Lotus Demon Venerable’s own vital Gu. ^{ch. 820}

Searching souls is easy. Even Fang Yuan, who is not soul path, could search Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s soul. Searching wills is completely different, closer to a chef tasting a dish to work out its recipe, a technique only wisdom path experts attempt. ^{ch. 820}

While Tai Bai Yun Sheng is away, Fang Yuan practices searching wills in Dang Hun palace. He is still a beginner with no experience yet. Tai Bai Yun Sheng then returns to Hu Immortal blessed land and greets Fang Yuan warmly. Fang Yuan invites him to sit and, noticing his tattered clothing, asks if he was injured. ^{ch. 820}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng explains, with slight lingering fear, that people now watch him, forcing a show at the regional wall instead of a direct stargate. Someone followed him, and even at the periphery he suffered greatly from the earth tide; only defensive immortal killer moves had any effect, and his nine cloud ring proved as flimsy as paper against it. He then asks whether Fang Yuan made any gains. ^{ch. 820}

Fang Yuan laughs and tells him most of the truth, hiding that he, the false junior brother, had killed his real senior brother. Tai Bai Yun Sheng reports his popularity in Eastern Sea, at this rate almost a second Fairy Li Shan. He also notes Shark Demon has attacked Yu Lu blessed land repeatedly without success. ^{ch. 820}

Fang Yuan notes Fairy Yu Lu is a rank eight Gu Immortal. She trained under Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable. Yu Lu grotto-heaven dropped to blessed land status but kept that foundation, making it perhaps one of the hardest blessed lands to take down. Eight things shape a blessed land’s defense, but offense and defense ultimately come down to one thing: the quantity of dao marks. ^{ch. 820}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng nods along at first, taking it all as common sense. But Fang Yuan’s last sentence strikes him with enlightenment, and he asks to be told more. Fang Yuan does not answer directly, instead asking Tai Bai Yun Sheng whether he knows the old saying that man is the spirit of all living beings, while Gu are the essence of heaven and earth. ^{ch. 820}